Google's Highly Open Participation Program tries to get young students into Open Source and Joomla! specifically. Everyone is welcome, there are not limits. You can be a coder, documenter, tester, translator to help out. Jump in and start helping!

My name is Grant. Sorry about being a bit late on the introduction, but I kinda haven't been home all day and got the comment telling me to post here after I went to bed last night...

My task is to create a spreadsheet of commercial materials about how to use Joomla! (full description included below). I do have a few questions though...

There are supposed to be a minimum of seven columns, but not all resources I have found include "contact information" (the last column). Should I simply put "N/A"or should I not include resources without contact information. Actually, what is the definition of contact information? Would that be an address given for more information and/or an email address, or do I have the wrong idea of what it is?

How many different resources do I need to find before submitting the spreadsheet? Or should I just put as many as I can possibly find in the allotted time (two weeks)?

I have found some identical videos, but different authors claim it on different sites and I can't find much definite information, should these be included?

And I have one last question: The task description starts out by speaking about resources in the Joomla! Shop, then about in bookstores in general, so should I only include materials found places in places other than bookstores, or include items from bookstores other than the Joomla shop? And although the Joomla! Shop is powered by Amazon.com, there are about 40 additional materials on Amazon.com that are not in the shop. Should those be included in the spreadsheet?

Yeah... Sorry about all the questions, but this is my first task and I want to make sure I do it correctly.

Description
Currently the Joomla! Shop offers a variety of books about Joomla!.
However, there are many other commercial materials for learning Joomla!
including videos, interactive training and electronic publications not
available in bookstores.

For this task you will search out these other sources, using various
methods, including search engine searches and asking for suggestions on
various forums.

Licensing
The document should comply with current Joomla! Editorial Style Guidelines
and guidelines for the Template Tutorials Project.

Documentation written for this task must be made available under the
Joomla! Electronic Documentation License. will insert both of the above

Extra Credit (optional)
Work with the shop team to determine the feasibility of offering some or
all of these products for sale.

Time Limit
2 weeks[/quote]

And I've always wanted to post a "short" biography about myself somewhere on the Internet... So please excuse the length of this introduction which will include much frivolous information.
I have been using computers most of my life. I remember our good old MS-DOS computer, and our first $1700 133mhz Pentium with Windows 95... Yup, those were the good ol' days. In about fifth grade I started creating basic websites with HTML, then I became infatuated with JavaScript. By sixth grade I had moved on from web development to Visual Basic 6 on a 200mhz Pentium Pro (which I currently use as a web server hosting a few of my own Joomla! sites). After then, things get fuzzy, but I remember using Mambo before the fork. After that I moved to making games with Mark Overmars's Game Maker. Then I came back to Mambo at some point after the fork and switched to Joomla!. Then set up various websites including clan sites for [SPAM]. I also started working with CSS for Jooma! templates, and as with many teenagers, to make a fancy layout on MySpace. Somewhere along the line I started using Linux, I tried most live CD's and eventually settled on installing Slackware on a new bare bones desktop system, but for compatibility issues with programs, I now use Windows 2000. I am currently a junior at Fairfield High School, in Ohio. I am in a class called Applied Computer Technology which teaches plenty of random stuff including Java programming.

So yeah, that's basically my past experience with computers... I hope it is in some way useful and not too inappropriate for an introduction here.

How many different resources do I need to find before submitting the spreadsheet? Or should I just put as many as I can possibly find in the allotted time (two weeks)?
I'd say to look around - Google - Amazon - the Joomla! Bookshelf (behind the help button) - see what you can find.

I have found some identical videos, but different authors claim it on different sites and I can't find much definite information, should these be included?

Good question - I'll leave that to Michelle.

Your last question is also good, let's find Michelle and see what she is thinking for this task.

Yeah... Sorry about all the questions, but this is my first task and I want to make sure I do it correctly.

Can you set up another thread so that the students who participate in the GHOP can share about themselves if desired?

@ Students, if you wish to share about yourselves, please do not give any personal contact information on the forum. Rather, you might like to share how you got interested in Open Source software and how you found out about the Joomla! project and why you chose the project that you did.

Can you set up another thread so that the students who participate in the GHOP can share about themselves if desired?

Excellent idea, Michelle! We are planning something along these lines. It will be published later and collected a bit differently. We will not miss the opportunity to get to know these amazing kids a bit more.

Since you are about to leave - and the due date on this task has already passed, I will be more than happy to help with this task. If you could share your expectations of what you want accomplished, we can work here in this forum thread, with help from the community, on getting the task finished.

If you are pretty open to what results are obtained, maybe it's just a matter of searching the major book store websites, etc., and assembling a list. If that's the goal, I am certain we can help exhnozoaa finish the task successfully.

No problem, Grant. When you get a chance, please let me know what has been accomplished and what you understand should be done. Just post in this thread so that the community can begin participating, as well. Once we understand where this task is at, we can decide the best way to proceed.

exhnozoaa and I spent some time on yahoo IM last week going into detail of what is expected. I assume since the project is fairly straight forward, that exhnozoaa has some specific questions.

@exhnozoaa,

I believe that you have the basic understanding of what is expected of you. Do not worry if you can not all the detailed information to fill into the spreadsheet.

What is really important is to get the name of the resource & the Web site.

If I have to choose between getting a more complete list of just the names & web sites of books & other resources and having a smaller list with every minute detail, I will prefer a longer list of just the names & web sites.

If you accomplish this, I will be satisfied. After I come back, maybe we can spend some time on yahoo chat to review your results.

The contest rules state a student may not select the next task before the judges have accepted the first as complete. We are also required to establish due dates. The date on this task has passed (yesterday). You are leaving for ten days tomorrow. I'm not certain what to do. How do you recommend we handle this?

Should the task end date be extended? And, if so, for how long?

Will this entry require your review to be accepted? (And therefore the contestant must wait until your return?)

If not, should we just use our best judgement when reviewing this work? Maybe the discussions can be posted between the two of you to help us with that?

Whichever way you want to handle it is okay with me, just looking for direction.
Amy

And I think I would choose to extend the due date to Jan. 1, since I am also leaving for the holidays for an indefinite amount of time (my parents are really indecisive, but I know we are leaving on the 21st and returning probably by the 31st) I would have no means of completing a second task before Michelle gets back.

Thank you again for handling the situation like this when I clearly do not deserve it.

We knew from the start that this would be specially arranged for when the two of you were able to meet. We have made arrangements all along with anyone who was involved and engaged. Our goal is a good end product, not a specific date.

The only date no one can be flexible with is Google's dates and I believe that means all tasks must end EARLY in February - perhaps the 5th or 6th - I'd have to check.

So, as long as you feel progress is being made, you are free to set the pace. If there is something I can do, please let me know. And, if you get a chance to look at Wilco's blog, you will see that, even at mid-point, our community is really going to benefit from these amazing people.